Home » Public Forums » GMCnet » [GMCnet] Advice and Lessons Learned?
| [GMCnet] Advice and Lessons Learned? [message #349823] |
Sat, 02 November 2019 22:01  |
Dave Stragand
Messages: 307
Registered: October 2017
Karma: 0
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Senior Member |
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Johnny Bridges gave some great advice. I've always believed that the psychology of a restoration is just as important as the technology!
A few years back, I completed a 2000+ hour restoration of a total basket case DeLorean, and was asked by a magazine to write up what I learned. Most of it I learned the hard way, and the rest of it I learned by heeding the wisdom of others. It applies to as much to DMCs as it does to GMCs, AMCs, BMCs, FMCs, HMCs and so on and so on. The following is what I wrote. I'd love to hear your thoughts on how much of it applies to a GMC restoration. Here goes:
June 27, 2004:
I guess what Id most like to share is what I have learned during the restoration.
1) Find out what matters to you.
In buying or restoring any car, you need to set some priorities. Will your car be a Saturday night cruiser, a Concours car, or a daily driver? Its hard to have it all, so determining your goals for the project are important. Even when youve picked out your car, prioritize the repairs or upgrades, and focus on the things that will bring you the greatest satisfaction first.
2) Make a budget.
If you spend every cent buying a car that needs a lot more money invested before it's streetable, you'll start to see the car only as an endless drain on your wallet. It's a race against time -- the longer the car sits, the more it will need, and the less energy you will have to do it. This is what my friends call the "Project Car Spiral". Avoid it. Make a detailed list of what your car needs, and how much it will cost to do it. Then, create a realistic budget of how much time and money you can spend on your car per month, and develop a schedule of when you will proceed with each individual repair.
3) Keep notes.
Keep notes -- what you did, what you have to buy, and what you need to do. Just a simple spiral notebook can be a wonderful resource in your restoration. Write down notes as you need them, staple in your receipts for parts and service, and keep up to date to do and to buy lists. Eventually you get to cross each completed item off of your list, and believe me, that is very satisfying. Every item crossed off will help you realize you really are getting somewhere with your project. You can also use your to do and to buy lists to help you revise your budget once in a while, which gives you a more secure feeling about how much time and money it will take to complete your car. Plus, when youre done you will have an amazing scrapbook to look back on as well.
4) Watch scope creep.
During the course of the work on my car, I decided I would heavily modify the engine, completely modernize the interior, put in a thousand dollar stereo/video setup, and install a complete strobe lighting system. Whoa! That would have completely blown away my budget, and was way beyond the original scope of the project. Could I change course in the middle? Sure, but it would have pushed my completion date back several years. Was I prepared to deal with that consequence? No, not at all. If you feel like the scope of your project is growing uncontrollably as you work, then stop, take a breath, and split it into separate whole projects. Stage I, Stage II, etc. There is no reason you cant finish your car two, three, or even ten times! Each time you finish, you build up the gumption you will need for the next stage of your project.
5) Gumption, patience and Zen.
Gumption is your enthusiasm and energy to get the work done on your car. If you dont have it, nothing will ever get done. Conversely, if you do have it, theres no way you wont get it done. Think of it as the on/off switch for the success of your project. When you feel like working on the car, get to it! When you dont feel like working on the car, dont. Its sounds like common sense, but you would be surprised how many people dont see that. If you dont feel like working on your car, but you force yourself into it, you start to get sloppy, make mistakes, and lose even more gumption in the process. Keep your gumption high and success will follow.
6) Pick your battles.
Sometimes, no matter how much you want to do a certain task, you find that you simply lack the tools, time, knowledge, or energy to do it. Thats part of any restoration. Theres no shame in farming out work to a vendor or good repair shop and you may save time, money and hassles as well.
7) Get a little help from your friends.
Another option is to ask other owners for help [And that includes online here!]. Most are happy to help you with projects both large and small, and you can always benefit from their experience. Make friends with the owners within a days drive from you, and keep in touch. Ask for help when you need it, and remember to return the favor someday!
8) Buy or borrow test equipment & tools.
Knowing whats going on with your car isnt a knack, its a process. Your car will always tell you what is wrong with it if you only know the right questions to ask. The manuals have good checklists for troubleshooting the most common problems, but many require special tools like fuel pressure test gauges, timing lights, or emissions testers. You can usually find an owner near you who has the special tools you need, and the experience to help you use them. If not, many of the tools are available from vendors or by specialty tool stores online. The money spent on good diagnostic tools always pays for itself in the end.
9) Go with the vendors.
Early on in my restoration, I spent countless hours trying to find cross-reference parts instead of buying items directly from vendors. I thought I could save money in the long run, but boy, was I wrong. A quick total of my receipts shows that I have over $1500 in useless cross-reference parts sitting here on the shelf. In what way did that save me any money? Our vendors make a living by providing you with parts that they 100% guarantee will work on your DMC, and they do so at very reasonable prices. As a bonus, I have gotten untold hours of free tech support from every vendor I have purchased from, and that advice has saved me huge amounts of time and money over the years.
... that's what I wrote 15 years ago. Looking back, I would also now add a #10, which is kind of a digital extension to #3:
10) It's always a Kodak moment.
These days, photos and videos cost nothing, but can mean everything. Take a zillion pictures of things before and after you work on them. You'd be surprised how many times those pictures will help you see what wire goes where, or the correct way to reassemble something you just took apart. They're also a wonderful resource to be able to provide to others during a technical discussion. But most importantly, they are a time capsule of the fun you had working on your coach. Enjoy the moments.
... Now what can y'all add to the list? I'm looking forward to reading your additions!
-Dave
1978 Transmode near Pittsburgh
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1978 Transmode (403)
Pittsburgh, PA
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| Re: [GMCnet] Advice and Lessons Learned? [message #349824 is a reply to message #349823] |
Sun, 03 November 2019 01:18  |
Richard Denney
Messages: 920
Registered: April 2010
Karma: 9
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Senior Member |
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For me, I’d add: never undertake a project without a deadline. I have
maintained the principle for me that the coach must stay usable, so the
deadline is usually a rally or trip in the coach.
Even the Adobe Posterior replacement had a near-term deadline—the coach was
back to drivable within a week. Hard to believe now.
The rear suspension and brake conversion this year took six weeks, with a
rally as the deadline. The drivetrain replacement took five days, with a
rally (and the extent to which I was prepared to impose on the shop host)
as the deadline. Barely made that one. The one-ton front end took five
weeks, with a rally as a deadline. I missed that one, but only because I
was bedridden with the flu for a critical long weekend. And so on.
I may collect the parts for a project for a year or two. I don’t start it
until I can be committed to finishing it, and in the meantime I do without
that improvement.
Rick “pondering the parts for a fuel-injection conversion” Denney
On Sat, Nov 2, 2019 at 11:02 PM Dave Stragand via Gmclist <
gmclist@list.gmcnet.org> wrote:
>
> ... Now what can y'all add to the list? I'm looking forward to reading
> your additions
>
--
'73 X-Glacier 230 "Jaws"
Northern Virginia
Offlist email: rick at rickdenney dot com
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| Re: [GMCnet] Advice and Lessons Learned? [message #349828 is a reply to message #349823] |
Sun, 03 November 2019 08:30 |
6cuda6
Messages: 975
Registered: June 2019
Karma: -6
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Senior Member |
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Biggest one is understand the scope of work you are undertaking and if you think its gonna take "x" time and "money" tripple those numbers.....
To many times i see people purchase a running vehicle and start into it.....for some reason on another they get overwhelmed and decide to sell that completely gutted vehicle....sadly once its no longer a running complete unit its worth practicaly nothing.
Rich Mondor,
Brockville, ON
77 Hughes 2600
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| Re: [GMCnet] Advice and Lessons Learned? [message #349847 is a reply to message #349823] |
Sun, 03 November 2019 11:02 |
sgltrac
Messages: 2797
Registered: April 2011
Karma: 1
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Senior Member |
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I would add an exclamation point and stars to section 10. When I was taking
documentation photos for the resto on The War Pig, I heeded similar advice
to “take lots of pictures, take too many”. What I ended up with towards the
end of the project(when it was going back together) was a need for more
visual confirmation that I had things that I wanted to preserve back the
way they were when I started(such as the suspension air compressor lines
and wiring). In this spirit I would add to the list # take lots of
pictures and review the pictures of the day with the progress of the day to
ensure you have captured all that you need for a solid blueprint of the go
back phase. The go back phase may be weeks or months later and things that
you discount at the time because “I’m putting that right back in a week”
can slip through the cracks and cause further bouts of paralysis of
analysis later. Take WAY TOO MANY pictures. Organize the pics in a folder
and manage by date.
Sully
Bellevue wa.
On Sat, Nov 2, 2019 at 8:02 PM Dave Stragand via Gmclist <
gmclist@list.gmcnet.org> wrote:
> Johnny Bridges gave some great advice. I've always believed that the
> psychology of a restoration is just as important as the technology!
>
> A few years back, I completed a 2000+ hour restoration of a total basket
> case DeLorean, and was asked by a magazine to write up what I learned.
> Most of it I learned the hard way, and the rest of it I learned by heeding
> the wisdom of others. It applies to as much to DMCs as it does to GMCs,
> AMCs, BMCs, FMCs, HMCs and so on and so on. The following is what I
> wrote. I'd love to hear your thoughts on how much of it applies to a GMC
> restoration. Here goes:
>
> June 27, 2004:
>
> I guess what I’d most like to share is what I have learned during the
> restoration.
>
> 1) Find out what matters to you.
> In buying or restoring any car, you need to set some priorities. Will
> your car be a Saturday night cruiser, a Concours car, or a daily driver?
> It’s hard to have it all, so determining your goals for the project are
> important. Even when you’ve picked out your car, prioritize the repairs or
> upgrades, and focus on the things that will bring you the greatest
> satisfaction first.
>
> 2) Make a budget.
> If you spend every cent buying a car that needs a lot more money invested
> before it's streetable, you'll start to see the car only as an endless
> drain on your wallet. It's a race against time -- the longer the car sits,
> the more it will need, and the less energy you will have to do it. This is
> what my friends call the "Project Car Spiral". Avoid it. Make a detailed
> list of what your car needs, and how much it will cost to do it. Then,
> create a realistic budget of how much time and money you can spend on your
> car per month, and develop a schedule of when you will proceed with each
> individual repair.
>
> 3) Keep notes.
> Keep notes -- what you did, what you have to buy, and what you need to do.
> Just a simple spiral notebook can be a wonderful resource in your
> restoration. Write down notes as you need them, staple in your receipts
> for parts and service, and keep up to date “to do” and “to buy” lists.
> Eventually you get to cross each completed item off of your list, and
> believe me, that is very satisfying. Every item crossed off will help you
> realize you really are getting somewhere with your project. You can also
> use your “to do” and “to buy” lists to help you revise your budget once in
> a while, which gives you a more secure feeling about how much time and
> money it will take to complete your car. Plus, when you’re done you will
> have an amazing scrapbook to look back on as well.
>
> 4) Watch ‘scope creep’.
> During the course of the work on my car, I decided I would heavily modify
> the engine, completely modernize the interior, put in a thousand dollar
> stereo/video setup, and install a complete strobe lighting system. Whoa!
> That would have completely blown away my budget, and was way beyond the
> original scope of the project. Could I change course in the middle? Sure,
> but it would have pushed my completion date back several years. Was I
> prepared to deal with that consequence? No, not at all. If you feel like
> the scope of your project is growing uncontrollably as you work, then stop,
> take a breath, and split it into separate whole projects. Stage I, Stage
> II, etc. There is no reason you can’t “finish” your car two, three, or
> even ten times! Each time you “finish”, you build up the gumption you will
> need for the next stage of your project.
>
> 5) Gumption, patience and Zen.
> Gumption is your enthusiasm and energy to get the work done on your car.
> If you don’t have it, nothing will ever get done. Conversely, if you do
> have it, there’s no way you won’t get it done. Think of it as the on/off
> switch for the success of your project. When you feel like working on the
> car, get to it! When you don’t feel like working on the car, don’t. It’s
> sounds like common sense, but you would be surprised how many people don’t
> see that. If you don’t feel like working on your car, but you force
> yourself into it, you start to get sloppy, make mistakes, and lose even
> more gumption in the process. Keep your gumption high and success will
> follow.
>
> 6) Pick your battles.
> Sometimes, no matter how much you want to do a certain task, you find that
> you simply lack the tools, time, knowledge, or energy to do it. That’s
> part of any restoration. There’s no shame in farming out work to a vendor
> or good repair shop – and you may save time, money and hassles as well.
>
> 7) Get a little help from your friends.
> Another option is to ask other owners for help [And that includes online
> here!]. Most are happy to help you with projects both large and small, and
> you can always benefit from their experience. Make friends with the owners
> within a day’s drive from you, and keep in touch. Ask for help when you
> need it, and remember to return the favor someday!
>
> 8) Buy or borrow test equipment & tools.
> Knowing what’s going on with your car isn’t a ‘knack’, it’s a process.
> Your car will always tell you what is wrong with it – if you only know the
> right questions to ask. The manuals have good checklists for
> troubleshooting the most common problems, but many require special tools
> like fuel pressure test gauges, timing lights, or emissions testers. You
> can usually find an owner near you who has the special tools you need, and
> the experience to help you use them. If not, many of the tools are
> available from vendors or by specialty tool stores online. The money spent
> on good diagnostic tools always pays for itself in the end.
>
> 9) Go with the vendors.
> Early on in my restoration, I spent countless hours trying to find
> ‘cross-reference’ parts instead of buying items directly from vendors. I
> thought I could save money in the long run, but boy, was I wrong. A quick
> total of my receipts shows that I have over $1500 in useless
> ‘cross-reference’ parts sitting here on the shelf. In what way did that
> save me any money? Our vendors make a living by providing you with parts
> that they 100% guarantee will work on your DMC, and they do so at very
> reasonable prices. As a bonus, I have gotten untold hours of free tech
> support from every vendor I have purchased from, and that advice has saved
> me huge amounts of time and money over the years.
>
> ... that's what I wrote 15 years ago. Looking back, I would also now add
> a #10, which is kind of a digital extension to #3:
>
> 10) It's always a Kodak moment.
> These days, photos and videos cost nothing, but can mean everything. Take
> a zillion pictures of things before and after you work on them. You'd be
> surprised how many times those pictures will help you see what wire goes
> where, or the correct way to reassemble something you just took apart.
> They're also a wonderful resource to be able to provide to others during a
> technical discussion. But most importantly, they are a time capsule of the
> fun you had working on your coach. Enjoy the moments.
>
> ... Now what can y'all add to the list? I'm looking forward to reading
> your additions!
>
> -Dave
> 1978 Transmode near Pittsburgh
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> GMCnet mailing list
> Unsubscribe or Change List Options:
> http://list.gmcnet.org/mailman/listinfo/gmclist_list.gmcnet.org
>
_______________________________________________
GMCnet mailing list
Unsubscribe or Change List Options:
http://list.gmcnet.org/mailman/listinfo/gmclist_list.gmcnet.org
Sully
77 Royale basket case.
Future motorhome land speed record holder(bucket list)
Seattle, Wa.
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